Latest update on the High Wycombe Community Governance Review
At its meeting yesterday, Buckinghamshire Council’s Standards and General Purposes Committee approved the recommendations, made by the High Wycombe Community Governance Working Group, that the Council should not establish a town council for the whole of the unparished High Wycombe area but rather strengthen the current governance arrangements so that they can deliver improvements in the High Wycombe area.
Councillor David Goss is Chair of Standards and General Purposes Committee. He said:
“We would like to thank those residents and stakeholders in High Wycombe who shared their views with us. Despite considerable efforts to encourage local people to take part in the consultation exercise, including a copy of the survey with a pre-paid response envelope delivered to every household, it was clear from the very low response that there was just not a widespread appetite for creating a Town Council.
We were also very conscious that only 1.9% of the total local population (55,000 people) were prepared to meet the costs of a new local council and the committee concluded that did not give us a mandate to impose additional taxation on Wycombe residents.
We did however recognise that there was a general consensus amongst those who replied that residents want to see improvements in High Wycombe, and we will therefore be calling on Council for a review of the High Wycombe Town Committee to ensure it is in a better position to respond to such local issues.
The recommendation of our Committee will now go before all our councillors at the next full council meeting on 18 September, where the final decision on this will be made.”